Twilight: Eclipse - Review

Twilight: Eclipse, the pen-ultimate installment of Stephanie Meyers' vampire romance novels, continues the story of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewert), as her romance with Edward Cullen (Robert Pattenson) brings her inevitably closer to marriage, high school graduation, and her eventual turning to a dark and mysterious lady of the night – er, vampire.

The battle for Bella's heart tears between her two loves: the aforementioned Edward, and hunky, shirtless wearwolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Bella has already decided she wants to become a vampire, living out all of time with Edward and the Cullen family. However, when an army of vampires created with the sole purpose of killing Bella forces both vampire and wearwolf to work side-by-side, she begins to deal with the love in her heart she has for Jacob.

Eclipse manages to present an above-average feature: great acting by all involved (not JUST the leads), wonderful visuals and special effects, an amazing score, and an engaging script all captivated me as a member of the audience. There was an ambience that was created by the drama of the film; one which I appreciate as a movie-going fanatic.

I should point out that, in the effort of being fair, I have not actually seen nor read any of the Twilight series up until this film. Being a fan of both Bella Lugosi and Christopher Lee's Dracula, it's difficult for me, a late twenty's male, to approach a predominantly female marketed vampire mythology. Glittering in the sun, choosing not to feast on human blood, and going to high school; all these things are not the normal fare for undead creatures of the night. Actually, all of those things pretty much describe both Japanese school girls and the average puppy. So there was an adjustment factor for me in trying to come to terms with the nature of the mythology as presented.

That being said, I found Eclipse to be extremely enjoyable. Stewert, who normally shows no warmth or emotion in her characters, comparatively radiated as she Swan-swooned (teehee) over both leading men. Pattenson gave his usual creepy stalker performance, perfectly portraying the ageless vampire in love with an underage teenage girl.

Lautner spent the majority of the movie without his shirt off. I really wish I had a joke to go with that. But apart from an apparent lack of appropriate costume assistants to Mr. Lautner, I found the movie outstanding in every respect. (Found the joke.)

I give "Twilight: Eclipse" 5 glittered stares out of 5.